


Seedling in the Wind

by Doorhandletable



Category: Naruto
Genre: Father's Day, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:46:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24838657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doorhandletable/pseuds/Doorhandletable
Summary: When her class makes cards for Father's Day, Sarada feels left out. Luckily, Mama has a solution.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke
Comments: 8
Kudos: 97





	Seedling in the Wind

Sarada had been terrified of starting school at first. She hated the idea of being away from Mama for six hours every single day. When Mama had dropped her off for her first day, she had cried and had clung to her leg, begging her not to leave her. It had taken Mama promising to take Sarada to the sweet shop if she made it through her first day to get her to calm down.

However, Sarada had ended up really liking school. She liked learning, she liked her teacher, and she liked being with her friends. It had been nearly two months since she started school and she had never had a bad day.

That was until Mrs Yasashi, her kindly old kindergarten teacher, announced that they would be making cards for Father’s Day. As the class watched Mrs Yasashi demonstrate how to neatly fold the cardstock, Sarada sunk into her chair, wondering what she was going to do.

Mrs Yasashi went back to her desk. Everyone else in the class reached for the colored pencils and started working on their cards. Sarada took a deep breath, stood up, and walked over to Mrs Yasashi. She tugged on her shirt. Mrs Yasashi looked around, surprised.

“What’s wrong, Sarada?” she asked.

“My Papa isn’t around,” Sarada admitted. “I can’t make a card for him.”

“Isn’t around?” Mrs Yasashi repeated, looking concerned. “What do you mean, dear?”

“He’s away on an important mission,” Sarada explained. “So I can’t make a card for him.”

“You can give it to him when he gets back,” Mrs Yasashi told her gently.

“But I don’t know when he’s coming back,” Sarada admitted. She felt her eyes start to prickle with tears and quickly blinked them away.

“I’m sure he’ll appreciate getting a card from you no matter when he returns,” Mrs Yasashi said firmly. “Go back to your desk, dear.”

* * *

After school, Mama met Sarada at the gate as she usually did. When her mother asked her about her day, Sarada could only murmur a glum “it was fine”. Mama looked concerned but didn’t press Sarada on it.

When they got home, Mama made Sarada a sandwich. Sarada ate it at the kitchen table as she watched Mama unpack her schoolbag. Sarada was halfway through a mouthful of sandwich when she saw Mama pull out the card and realised that she had forgotten to dispose of the card before she left school.

“Did you make this, Sarada?” Mama asked, peering curiously down at the card.

Sarada quickly swallowed her mouthful of sandwich.

“We made Father’s Day cards at school,” she explained, fighting back tears again. “I told Mrs Yasashi that Papa is away, but she still made me make one anyway.”

“It’s very good,” Mama told her. “You must have worked very hard on it.”

Sarada always did her best at school. She had tried to make the card she would have made for Papa if she knew he would be around to give it to her. She didn’t know much about what Papa liked and disliked, but she really liked unicorns so she drew a picture of her and Papa riding a big pink unicorn together. She didn’t really remember Papa that well, so she had drawn him based on the few pictures they had of him.

“It’s too nice to just throw away,” Mama continued. She smiled at Sarada proudly. “I’ll make sure he gets it.”

Sarada looked up at her, excited.

“Is Papa coming home soon?” she asked.

“No,” Mama said. “He’s still busy with his mission.”

“Then how will you get it to him?” Sarada asked, her mood plummeting.

Mama smiled mischievously and tapped her nose.

“Mama’s secret.”

* * *

As Sarada got older, Mama started going away on missions outside of the village. While these missions were usually short and infrequent(as head of the Konoha medical department, her duties were primarily inside the village), Sarada couldn’t help but worry every time Mama went away. What if she didn’t come back? What if she got hurt? 

Sarada had ended up confessing her worries to Aunty Shizune one night when she was staying with her. Aunty Shizune had assured her that no kunoichi was as strong as her Mama. She had even surpassed their master, the legendary Tsunade. Few could mess with Sakura Uchiha and live to tell the tale.

A few days before Sarada’s eighth birthday, Mama informed her that she had to leave on another emergency mission over breakfast.

“But it’s your birthday tomorrow,” Sarada protested.

It was awfully unfair for Lord Seventh to send Mama off on a mission on her birthday.

Mama smiled and gentled tapped Sarada’s forehead with the back of her fingers.

“It’s only for a few days,” Mama assured her. “I’ll be back before your birthday, I promise.”

Mama picked up her and Sarada’s empty dishes and took them to the sink to wash them, humming tunelessly. Sarada couldn’t help but notice Mama looked much happier than she usually did before she had to leave on a mission.

* * *

Mama arrived to pick her up from Aunty Ino’s house just after dinner on the evening of March 30th, the night before Sarada’s birthday. Sarada tried to get Mama to tell her about her trip, but she remained tight-lipped. It was a top secret mission, after all.

The next morning, Sarada awoke to the buzz of her alarm clock. It was a Saturday, so she hit the snooze button and rolled over to finish her dream. 

Then she remembered that it was her birthday. 

Sarada leaped out of bed and bounded down the stairs. She found Mama in the kitchen making pancakes. There was a big pile of neatly-wrapped presents waiting for her on the table. Sarada immediately reached for the largest of the gifts before Mama stopped her.

“Breakfast first, Sarada,” she said primly, placing two plates of pancakes on the table.

Sarada sat down and pulled her plate towards her and Mama sat down next to her. As she took a bite of the pancakes, Sarada noticed that Mama was wearing a necklace she had never seen before. It was a simple stone pendant attached to a gold chain, but the stone was like nothing Sarada had ever seen before. It was smooth and red and looked like it was glowing almost. It looked like it belonged in a fairy tale.

“Is that a new necklace, Mama?” Sarada questioned.

“It is,” Mama confirmed, and she started cutting up her own pancakes. 

“Where did you get it?” Sarada asked.

Mama just smiled and said, “Finish your breakfast, Sarada.” 

Mama didn’t let Sarada unwrap her presents until every last morsel of the pancakes were gone. However, Sarada decided that it was worth the wait. She unwrapped a ton of new books, a hospital playset for her _Clique Squad_ dolls, sweets, and a set of pink and purple practice shuriken. 

Sarada took her new belongings up to her bedroom. When she came back down, she found Mama waiting for her, holding a small square package in her hands. 

“Sarada, you forgot to open this one,” she said, smiling. There was a small hint of anticipation in her voice.

“I didn’t see this one before,” Sarada said, taking the gift from her mother and inspecting it.

“It’s from Papa,” Mama said, her smile widening.

“Papa?!”

Sarada quickly ripped off the bright red wrapping paper. Inside was a small wooden box.

“Open it,” Mama urged, beaming at her. 

Sarada opened the box and found a necklace inside. It looked identical to her mother’s except the stone pendant was pink and the chain was silver. Just like Mama’s, there was an odd glow to it.

“Well, what do you think?” Mama said.

“It looks just like yours,” Sarada said, holding it up. “It’s very pretty.”

“I knew you’d like it,” Mama said, beaming. “Papa made it himself.”

Sarada stared down at the necklace. Had her father really made this for her birthday? Mama had told her that Papa was the strongest shinobi in the world next to Lord Seventh. She had never mentioned anything about him being a jeweler in his spare time. 

“Uh-huh,” Sarada murmured. She eyed her mother suspiciously. “Did Papa really make this himself?”

Mama smiled knowingly.

“Papa is a man of many talents,” she said.

“How did he give it to you?” Sarada asked. Had Mama seen Papa on her mission?

Mama’s smile grew wider.

“Mama’s secret.”

* * *

“This one has top notes of pink peony, lychee, and lily of the valley and features base notes of cedarwood and honey.”

The shopkeeper sprayed some of the perfume onto a piece of card and handed it to Sarada. She sniffed it, letting the scent fill her nostrils. The soft, sweet, floral fragrance made her think of spring fields, blue skies, and gentle breezes. It was Mama all over.

“I like this one, Papa!” she declared, looking up at her father.

She handed him the sample for his approval. He sniffed it and nodded. 

“We’ll take it,” Sarada said to the shopkeeper.

Papa dug into his pocket, pulled out a handful of bills, and handed them over to the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper handed the box to Papa and he slipped it into the pocket of his cloak.

“We still need to get the cake, Papa,” Sarada said as they stepped out back onto the street. “Mama’s favourite bakery is this way.”

Papa had arrived home early that morning, just after Mama had left for work. It was her birthday and they decided to surprise her by taking her out to dinner when she got home from work. They had spent the whole day looking for a present to buy for her. They went to seven different stores to look at gifts before they settled on perfume. Sarada knew, however, that having Papa back for Mama’s birthday was a far better present than any material gift.

* * *

“Papa, you should take a shower before Mama gets home,” Sarada ordered as they stepped through the apartment door. “You just got back from a mission. You want to look your best for Mama for her birthday, right?” 

Papa hung his cloak up on the hook and glanced down at her. 

“You act just like your mother sometimes,” he said fondly, a slight smile spreading across his face. He took his shoes off and strode into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. 

Sarada found bright pink wrapping paper and some tape tucked away in a drawer in a living room. She set them down on the table and walked down the hallway to the bathroom. 

“Papa?” she called, knocking on the door. “Where did you put the perfume we got for Mama? I need to wrap it.”

There was a brief silence and a few moments later she heard Papa’s voice say, “It’s in the pocket of my cloak.”

Sarada went over to where her father had hung his cloak. She lifted it off the hook and started searching the cloak’s many pockets. Papa really could have been more specific. His cloak seemed to be made of pockets. It took her several minutes to locate the box with the bottle of perfume inside. 

Finally finding it, she hung up the cloak and turned to walk back to the living room, before something caught her attention. What looked like a tiny piece of paper was lying on the floor. It must have fallen out of Papa’s jacket.

As Sarada bent down to pick it up, she realized that it wasn’t just a piece of paper, it was a card. She turned it over and saw a vaguely familiar picture on the front of the card. Two smiling stick figures with black hair riding a bright pink unicorn. It was the card she had made for Father’s Day back when she was five. Mama really had gotten the card to him all those years ago.

In truth, Sarada had begun to suspect that Mama’s vague hints about being in contact with Papa were just a ruse to make her feel better about her father’s absence. She had assumed the card was sitting forgotten in a box somewhere in Mama’s closet. 

But it wasn’t. Papa had gotten the card and had kept it with him all these years.

Sarada heard the shower turn off, breaking her train of thought. She quickly stuffed the card back into the cloak and went back to the living room. She had just finished wrapping the box of perfume when Papa walked into the living room. His hair was still damp and he was wearing Mama’s fluffy bathrobe. 

“I wrapped it!” Sarada declared, holding the package up to show him.

“Sarada, it’s your birthday soon too,” Papa said. “What would you like me to get you?”

“That’s okay, Papa,” Sarada said, putting the package back down. “I don’t need anything.”

“I can make you another necklace,” Papa offered.

So Papa really had made those necklaces for her and Mama.

“Oh, that be fine, thank you, Papa,” Sarada said, and then added, “I really liked the one you gave me a few years ago.”

Papa turned around and started walking towards his and Mama’s bedroom.

“Wait, Papa!”

Papa stopped and turned back around to face her, a curious look on his face. Sarada rushed forward and threw her arms around his waist.

“I love you so much, Papa,” she said into his stomach.

“Ah.”

Papa looked down at her and Sarada saw a gentle smile on his face, a smile that she knew meant “I love you more than anything in the world” in Papa language. 

**Author's Note:**

> I originally posted this as a headcanon on Tumblr a few months ago, but I ended up liking it so much I decided to turn this into a fic. 
> 
> This is kind of a spiritual sequel to my fics Full Bloom and A Coat of Paint.


End file.
